Police “frame tipper driver for murder” after 30-minute road chase goes wrong

Ikeja-20160214-01815 — The driver lost control of the tipper after he successfully negotiated a tight U-turn in one try.

The traquility that usually characterises the Agiliti community in Mile 12 Lagos gave way to chaos, Sunday afternoon, when a tipper crashed into a beauty salon along Aina road in the community.

The tipper driver was trying to escape arrest after a team of highway patrol policemen got on his tail in Ajegunle along Ikorodu road.

The policemen pursued him into the community where he crashed his tipper into a shop causing damage to the property.

According to witnesses, the policemen then tried to arrest the driver saying they started to tail him after he had knocked down and killed someone in Ajegunle.

Agiliti — This is the tipper Taofeek was driving, he jumped out of the vehicle as the truck was about to skid off the road. Photo: Ola Shile via Facebook

But an angry mob which had gathered prevented the policemen from carrying out the arrest. They insisted that the policemen bring the person whose car was hit.

And they did. But the young man the policemen brought to substantiate their story soon caved in under pressure from the crowd. He admitted it was all a lie. He was almost mobbed.

The crowd held down the patrol team until more policemen came to the scene.

The policemen have since been arrested.

Narrating how the incident occurred, the driver, who simply identified himself as Taofeek, said he had not committed any offense.

Agiliti 3 — Hours after the incident, Taofeek, the driver, was still shaken.

He said he was on his way to load his tipper when he heard noise from the policemen behind him asking him to stop. But he didn’t stop. The highway patrol team didn’t back off either.

Taofeek, who spoke in Yoruba, said he decided to stop when he got to Mile 12 underbridge but he changed his mind after he got scared of the way the policemen were brandishing and cocking their guns. He then headed towards Agiliti.

He added that he had not hit anything or anybody in the course of the chase until he lost control of the bus after successfully negotiating a sharp U-turn, about a hundred metres from the scene of the crash, in one try.

Agiliti 2 — Men of the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency and other on-lookers at the scene after the vehicle had been removed. Photo: Ola Shile/Facebook

Mrs Lucy Abbah, still shocked, said she had nothing to say. “I just want the things damaged in my shop to be replaced,” she said.

Policemen trooped into the community in their numbers following the incident as the mob, including many other tipper drivers refused to vacate the scene until they were sure the driver would not be victimised.

Many saluted him for managing to come that far without causing injuries to anyone.

Agiliti 4 — The crowd held down this patrol vehicle until more policemen came to the scene.

“If the vehicle didn’t crash here, it would have hit someone before getting back to Mile 12,” one resident said.

Although grieved by the damage done to properties, residents could not hide their relief that the incident happened at the time it did. Had it happened later in the evening, at least someone would have died owing to how people usually crowd around the shop, some of them said..